Dead Ends

The road less travelled

After our ignominious exit from Stromdorf we didn’t have time to go far as the light was dieing. We sought shelter for the night at the only place in the area willing to remember the events of the past fortnight. The good people of the Ackerland Farm took us in for the night and were even willing to sell us some wool at a good rate.

In which our heroes offend a priest

By this point, we’re pretty sure that the last chunk of the stone is somewhere in the Temple of Sigmar — probably under the floor in the basement — and there’s nothing left to do but go find it. So we rest up for a couple of nights, because we’re all awfully battered and bruised after facing down an army of Beastmen. I’m less wounded than the others, so I use my free time to talk that drunken Estalian into showing me a couple of tricky sword maneuvers. I’d never held a sword in my life before last month, but it seems like learning to use one properly just might be an important thing to do these days.

The wary and weary travelers had no idea where to look. The mysteries were piling up. Stories of suicide in the Market well, followed by Burgomeister Adler’s odd seclusion from the town. Strange surges in the storm two weeks ago had even the most weather hardened locals looking into the darkening skies. Even more lightning flashed over farmland and marshes, and strange stories of creatures out on the Oberslecht. And, the rain… the torrential and perpetual rain.

That morning a bolt lightening lit the skies and the resulting BOOM caused Albrecht and Heinz to go temporarily deaf. The elf smirked to himself, knowing he had left his window closed to avoid the terrible smell of this human dump of a town. Human’s are dumb, he thought.

After our recovery was mostly done Lord Ashaffenburg had us driven back to town on his cart to make up some of the time we lost. Trying again to find a way to get ahead of the cultists we chose to take the river to the next town instead of walking. We were able to get passage as far as Stromdorf on a boat headed run by two humans(Ernst and Grunt I think). We spent one more night at the Red Moon Inn and left early in the morning.
The humans talked about how the weather near Stromdorf was gloomy at best but now seemed darker than normal. As if on cue the water began to get choppy and we floated into a storm. Ernst spoke of pirates, maybe to distract himself from the storm as it became harder to see in the driving rain. Not long after that we sighted eels in the water, probably stirred up by the storm the human said. He may have been right but it couldn’t have helped the main bridge into town had waited for us to get close before going for a swim. When the bridge fell we rapidly came upon the debris and Ernst was tossed in to the churning river. The other human was useless at that point, scared, worried or dumbfounded it all looks the same on a human, so I took hold of the rudder and beached the boat on the bank.

I finally made out of the basement and sprint upstairs, only to be sent of to chase after the blunderbuss that Albrecht Kreug (now dead) had, handing off my magic hammer to the not dead Albrecht in the process.

After rounding the corner of the mansion (on my way back) I see three large Gores and an even larger War Gore coming over the top of the wall. Instinctively, I pull the trigger on the blunderbuss. The resulting blast injures each of the Gores. The fact that none of them were dead was rather dismaying but not nearly as much as watching three more Gores peek up behind the others.

After being severely damaged and losing my shield to the War Gore and his mighty axe, I ran back the manor yelling at Olver, and several guardsman to follow. Once inside we barred and barricaded all the entrances. I went upstairs with all of the people with ranged weapons did. Seeing the Gore that I had previously attacked I fired an arrow through his neck, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.

We spent a couple of days at the manor before departing so we could heal our wounds and salvage equipment of the departed. I manged to acquire a round shield from the guard house and the axe from the Gore that attacked me. As of yet we have kept the Dwarven Warhammer.

In which Albrecht becomes disgusted with the idiocy of the aristocracy

Lord Aschaffenburg seemed like a nice enough fellow, but maybe not too bright. Since it was late, and we’d had a harrowing time of it on the road, he told us we could get some sleep and start our investigation in the morning. He declared we’d be sharing Hendrick‘s room, which didn’t appear to sit to well with him. He also said I could use some of Hendrick’s best clothes for the upcoming feast, which definitely didn’t sit too well with Hendrick.

So the three of us go with Hendrick to the bedchamber, but the Elf tells me he thinks we should take a quick look around before sleep, while nobody’s about. Seems like a good idea, especially since we hadn’t had any dinner yet, so the two of us leave and go sneaking about the manor house while Heinz rests.

In which Albrecht describes a change of scenery

So it all started in Ubersreik. My father had been hanged some years back for the crime of body-snatching, and so I’d been on my own for a good while. I made ends meet by pursuing the family trade; it was a good way to make a few shillings for an enterprising young fellow like me. Anyway, I’d had a bit of recent misfortune and was down to my last few pennies, and things were getting pretty hungry, and the damned priests of Morr were spending whole nights out in the graveyards.

So I’m thinking it’s maybe time to try my hand at burglary or some such, when my old friend Heinz shows up with this wild-eyed Elf in tow. See, Heinz grew up in Ubersreik, but always had a bit of an outdoorsy bent, so he ended up making a living by offering his services as a guide for those bands of speculators who want to go up into the mountains and prospect for silver or plunder old Drachenfels’ castle or something like that. A pretty good living, too, to judge from his gear.